The Japans

Ken's Japan Recs

Bars · Eats · Coffee · Denim · Lodging 

Region

Nara

Japan’s first permanent capital — ancient temples, free-roaming deer, and some of the country’s oldest sake breweries.

Shop

Nara · ★ 4.6 (839) Harushika Sake Brewery Imanishi Seibei Store —

The retail face of one of Nara’s beloved sake breweries — Harushika’s shop is made for tasting before you buy. Nara is arguably the birthplace of sake as we know it, and this is a delicious way into that story. A quick stop with a high bottle-to-suitcase ratio.

→ Quick stop
Nara · ★ 4.4 (496) Nara Izumi Yūsai —

A Nara liquor shop and a natural stop on any sake-minded walk through the old capital. The shelves lean local — Nara’s breweries are some of Japan’s oldest, and this is where you taste that history. Ask what’s drinking well right now.

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Stay

Nara · ★ 4.6 (50) 西村邸 Nishimuratei —

Where Ken did a tea ceremony — a traditional Nara inn that clearly knows how to host a meaningful stay. Quiet rooms and the kind of hospitality that turns a night into a memory. Made for couples and slow mornings.

→ Couples